December forum consecration to Jesus through Mary

Three words summarize what we learned from Blessed Mother Teresa: (1) Thirst, (2) Heart, and (3) Covenant. Let's ponder each one in turn.

THIRST

... [Our Lady] was the first person to hear Jesus' cry "I Thirst" with St. John, and I am sure Mary Magdalen. Because Our Lady was there on Calvary, she knows how real, how deep is His longing for you and for the poor. Do we know? Do we feel as she? Ask her to teach ... . Her role is to bring you face to face, as John and Magdalen, with the love in the Heart of Jesus crucified. Before it was Our Lady pleading with Mother, now it is Mother in her name pleading with you —"listen to Jesus' thirst."

Let us try in a special way to come as close as the human heart can come to the Heart of Jesus and try to understand as much as possible Jesus' terrible pain caused to him by our sins and His Thirst for our love. Thank God our Lady was there to understand fully the thirst of Jesus for love. She must have straight away said, "I satiate Your thirst with my love and the suffering of my heart."

So let us ask Our Lady to help us understand.

HEART
A key to Mother Teresa's understanding of consecration is "heart," specifically, the Immaculate Heart. Recall her two prayers to Mary, "Lend me your heart" and "Keep me in your most pure heart." Also, recall the importance of our imitating Mary's pondering heart. Let's start with the two prayers and then review Mary's heart-pondering attitude.

Lend me your heart. By this prayer, Mother Teresa was asking Our Lady to give her the love of her heart. In other words, she says "Mary, help me to love with the perfect love of your Immaculate Heart." Remember, Mother Teresa's passionate desire was to satiate the thirst of Jesus for love, and she wanted to do this in the best possible way. What better way to love Jesus than with the perfect, humble, immaculate heart of his mother? Here, Mother Teresa found the secret to living out her vocation to the full: "Mary, lend me your Immaculate Heart."

Keep me in your most pure heart. Or, stated more fully, one prays, "Immaculate Heart of Mary, keep me in your most pure heart, so that I may please Jesus through you, in you, and with you." This part of Mother Teresa's consecration to Mary is the most profound. She's not just asking for Mary's heart to be in her but for her to be in Mary's heart! So, this is a prayer to love Jesus through Mary, in Mary, and with Mary. This is something more than simply having Mary lend us her heart. To understand this and live it requires a loving dependence and profound union with Mary. This is expressed more fully in the next section "covenant."

Pondering heart. Mother Teresa developed an "attitude of gratitude" by following the example of Mary who was always "pondering in her heart" the "good things" that God was doing in her life (see Luke 2:19, 51). Specifically, Mother Teresa followed this example through her fidelity to the examination of conscience. In other words, at the end of each day, she would ponder in her heart all the good things God had done for her that day and would reflect on how she was or was not fully responding to his love.

COVENANT

Moved by an ardent desire to live in the closest union with you [Mary] possible in this life, so as to more surely and fully arrive at union with your Son; I hereby pledge to live the spirit and terms of the following Covenant of Consecration as faithfully and generously as I am able.

MARY'S DUTIES
1. To give of her spirit and heart.
2. To possess, protect, and transform me.
3. To inspire, guide, and enlighten me.
4. To share her experience of prayer and praise.
5. Responsibility for my sanctification.
6. Responsibility for all that befalls me.
7. To share with me her virtues.
8. To provide for my spiritual and material needs.
9. Union with her heart.
10. To purify me and my actions.
11. Right to dispose of me, of my prayers and intercessions and graces.
12. Total freedom in and around me, as she pleases in all things.

MY DUTIES
1. Total gift of all I have and am.
2. Total dependence on her.
3. Responsiveness to her spirit.
4. Faithfulness to prayer.
5. Trust in her intercession.
6. Accept all as coming from her.
7. Imitate her spirit.
8. Constant recourse to her.
9. Remembrance of her presence.
10. Purity of intention; self-denial.
11. Right to avail myself of her and her energies for the sake of the kingdom.
12. Right to enter into her heart, to share her interior life.

Blessed is he that understandeth (Psalm 119:1,2) what it is to love Jesus, and to despise himself for Jesus' sake. Thou oughtest to leave thy beloved, for thy beloved (Deut. 6:5; Matt. 22:37; Cant. 2:16); for that Jesus will be loved alone above all things.

The love of things created is deceitful and inconstant; the love of Jesus is faithful and persevering. He that cleaveth unto a creature, shall fall with that which is subject to fall; he that embraceth Jesus shall be made strong for ever.

2. Love Him, and keep Him for thy friend, who, when all go away, will not forsake thee, nor suffer thee to perish in the end. Some time or other thou must be separated from all, whether thou wilt or no. Keep close to Jesus both in life and in death, and commit thyself unto His faithfulness, who, when all fail, can alone help thee.

Thy Beloved is of that nature, that He will admit of no rival; but will have thy heart alone, and sit on His throne as King. If thou couldest empty thyself perfectly from all creatures, Jesus would willingly dwell with thee.

True Devotion: Nos. 257-260

There are some very sanctifying interior practices for those souls who feel called by the Holy Spirit to a high degree of perfection. They may be expressed in four words, doing everything through Mary, with Mary, in Mary, and for Mary, in order to do it more perfectly through Jesus, with Jesus, in Jesus, and for Jesus.

Through Mary

258. We must do everything through Mary, that is, we must obey her always and be led in all things by her spirit, which is the Holy Spirit of God. "Those who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God," says St. Paul. Those who are led by the spirit of Mary are children of Mary, and, consequently children of God, as we have already shown. Among the many servants of Mary only those who are truly and faithfully devoted to her are led by her spirit. I have said that the spirit of Mary is the spirit of God because she was never led by her own spirit, but always by the spirit of God, who made himself master of her to such an extent that he became her very spirit. That is why St. Ambrose says, "May the soul of Mary be in each one of us to glorify the Lord. May the spirit of Mary be in each one of us to rejoice in God." Happy is the man who follows the example of the good Jesuit Brother Rodriguez, who died a holy death, because he will be completely possessed and governed by the spirit of Mary, a spirit which is gentle yet strong, zealous yet prudent, humble yet courageous, pure yet fruitful.

With Mary

260. We must do everything with Mary, that is to say, in all our actions we must look upon Mary, although a simple human being, as the perfect model of every virtue and perfection, fashioned by the Holy Spirit for us to imitate, as far as our limited capacity allows. In every action then we should consider how Mary performed it or how she would perform it if she were in our place. For this reason, we must examine and meditate on the great virtues she practised during her life, especially: 1) Her lively faith, by which she believed the angel's word without the least hesitation, and believed faithfully and constantly even to the foot of the Cross on Calvary. 2) Her deep humility, which made her prefer seclusion, maintain silence, submit to every eventuality and put herself in the last place.

Prayers
Litany of the Holy Ghost, Ave Maris Stella, Litany of the Holy Name of Jesus, St. Louis de Montfort's Prayer to Jesus, and O Jesus Living in Mary

Three words summarize what we learned from St. John Paul II: (1) Mother, (2) "Entrust-acration," and (3) Mercy. Let's ponder each one in turn.

MOTHER
John Paul's teaching on Marian consecration not only carries with it his authority as Pope but also the authoritative weight of an Ecumenical Council, because he repeats and deepens Vatican II's teaching on Mary. Therefore, his teaching actually constitutes the mind and heart of the Church today, and we should pay particular attention to it. So what is the mind and heart of the Church telling us about Mary? It's pointing to Mary's maternal mediation. It's saying she's our mother in the order of grace. It's proclaiming the Good News that God has given us a spiritual mother who prayerfully, lovingly attends to our growth in grace and holiness. This new motherhood of Mary in the life of the Church, in the life of each of one of us, is the constant, consoling, beautiful background to everything we've said about Marian consecration — or what John Paul often calls "entrustment."

ENTRUST-ACRATION
Seeing Mary standing at the foot of the Cross next to his beloved disciple, John, Jesus said, "Woman, behold, your son." Then, to John, "Behold, your mother" (Jn 19:26-27). These words summarize what we already covered in the last point, that Mary is our spiritual mother. But then we read the next verse, "Then the disciple took her into his home." Here is the heart of our response to Jesus entrusting us to Mary as our mother: We are to then entrust ourselves to her by taking her "into our homes." In other words, we're to take her into our inner life, into all that concerns us. We are to let her into our joys and sorrows, hopes and fears, plans and activities.

When we let Mary into our lives, when we entrust ourselves to her care, she intercedes for us, consoles us, and gives us courage and strength to unite ourselves more fully to Jesus' own consecration of himself for the life of the world. In other words, she brings us to the Cross of Jesus, which is the final meaning of Jesus' self-consecration, and she inspires us to spend ourselves for the salvation of the world, to take up our part in the work of redemption. As we take up our cross, as we live within Christ's own consecration, we may become spiritually thirsty, desolate, and tired. That's when Mary carries us to the pierced side of Christ, the Fountain of Mercy, where we find a ceaseless source of strength and holiness.

Thus, to John Paul's mind, entrustment to Mary leads to our consecration to Christ. In other words, one might say it's a movement of "entrust-acration."

MERCY
Ultimately, Marian consecration leads us to Divine Mercy. Acts of consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary lead to acts of trust in the Merciful Heart of Jesus. We see this in the story of Fatima and Pope John Paul, and especially in the Pope's homily during his pilgrimage to Fatima in 1982, a pilgrimage of thanksgiving "to the mercy of God ... and the Mother of Christ" for having saved his life.

In that homily, John Paul repeatedly pointed out how Marian consecration leads us to the pierced Heart of Jesus, the Fountain of Mercy. This connection is part of the will of Jesus himself, who said to Sr. Lucia in 1936 that he wills the consecration to Mary's Heart "because I want my whole Church to acknowledge that consecration [that my mother requested at Fatima] as a triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, so that it may extend its veneration later on, and put the devotion to this Immaculate Heart beside the devotion to My Sacred Heart." Jesus wants to extend veneration and devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary because she leads us most perfectly to him and helps us to receive the infinite mercy of his Heart.

Today's Prayer:
Spend the day pondering John Paul's Marian teaching as it is summarized by these three words: Mother, Entrust-acration, and Mercy.

That the Blood of Christ and the Holy Scriptures Are Most Necessary unto a Faithful Soul

O most sweet Lord Jesus, how great is the pleasure of the devout soul that feasteth with Thee in Thy banquet; where there is set for her no other food to be eaten but Thyself, her only Beloved, and most to be desired above all the desires of her heart! To me also it would be indeed sweet, in Thy presence to pour forth tears from the very bottom of my heart, and with the grateful Magdalene to wash Thy feet with tears (Luke 7:38). But where is that devotion? Where that bountiful flowing of holy tears? Surely in the sight of Thee and Thy holy Angels, my whole heart ought to burn, and to weep for joy. For in this Sacrament I have Thee mystically present, hidden under another shape. For to look upon Thee in Thine own Divine brightness, mine eyes would not be able to endure; nor could even the whole world stand in the splendor of the glory of Thy majesty. Herein then Thou hast regard to my weakness, that Thou dost hide Thyself under this Sacrament.

True Devotion: Nos. 261-265

In Mary

261. We must do everything in Mary. To understand this we must realise that the Blessed Virgin is the true earthly paradise of the new Adam and that the ancient paradise was only a symbol of her. There are in this earthly paradise untold riches, beauties, rarities and delights, which the new Adam, Jesus Christ, has left there. It is in this paradise that he "took his delights" for nine months, worked his wonders and displayed his riches with the magnificence of God himself.In this earthly paradise grows the real Tree of Life which bore our Lord, the fruit of Life, the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which bore the Light of the world. In this divine place there are trees planted by the hand of God and watered by his divine unction which have borne and continue to bear fruit that is pleasing to him. Only the Holy Spirit can teach us the truths that these material objects symbolise. 262. The Holy Spirit speaking through the Fathers of the Church, also calls our Lady the Eastern Gate, through which the High Priest, Jesus Christ, enters and goes out into the world. Through this gate he entered the world the first time and through this same gate he will come the second time.

For Mary

265. Finally, we must do everything for Mary. We take Mary for our proximate end, our mysterious intermediary and the easiest way of reaching him. Relying on her protection, we should undertake and carry out great things for our noble Queen. We must defend her privileges when they are questioned and uphold her good name when it is under attack. We must attract everyone, if possible, to her service and to this true and sound devotion. As a reward for these little services, we should expect nothing in return save the honour of belonging to such a lovable Queen and the joy of being united through her to Jesus, her Son, by a bond that is indissoluble in time and in eternity.

Prayers
Litany of the Holy Ghost, Ave Maris Stella, Litany of the Holy Name of Jesus, St. Louis de Montfort's Prayer to Jesus, and O Jesus Living in Mary

For the last four days, we've been reviewing the last four weeks of our retreat. During these days, we've not only been reviewing the material, we've also begun to put together all that we've learned. I say we've begun to put it together. We're probably not yet at a point where we can grasp the manifold truth of Marian consecration "in a single gaze," as John Paul put it. To get to this point, a unifying statement may be helpful, something like the "First Principle and Foundation" that St. Ignatius of Loyola came up with to summarize and give clarity and focus to his spirituality.

Actually, I think we need more than just a statement. We need a prayer, something we can frequently repeat, even everyday, that not only reminds us of the meaning of our consecration but actually expresses the gift of ourselves to Jesus through Mary.

While several of the saints we've learned from during these past weeks have written excellent prayers or "formulas" of consecration, I'm not going to present their formulas here. (If you're interested, I've included them in Appendix One [available in the book 33 Days to Morning Glory].) Instead, I'm going to present an updated prayer of consecration that combines the main insights we've covered during the retreat. Even though I'm no saint, I feel confident to do this because I'm making use of the actual words and ideas of all four of the Marian saints of our retreat. Moreover, I feel emboldened to compose this new prayer because of the words of Pope Pius XII on the occasion of St. Louis de Montfort's canonization:

True devotion ... aims essentially at union with Jesus under the guidance of Mary. The form and practice of this devotion may vary according to time, place, and personal inclination. Within the bounds of sound and safe doctrine, of orthodoxy and dignity of worship, the Church leaves her children a just margin of liberty. She is conscious that true and perfect devotion to Our Lady is not bound up in any particular modes in such a way that one of them can claim a monopoly over the others.

Inspired by these words and taking the liberty the Pope gives us, I offer the following updated prayer of consecration that aims to capture the essentials of what we've learned during our retreat. Now, if it doesn't fit with your personal inclination, don't worry. You can always take the liberty to write your own prayer or use one written by the saints. Anyway, here's a summary statement of what we've learned, a statement that's also a prayer from the heart:

I, ____________, a repentant sinner, renew and ratify today in your hands, O Immaculate Mother, the vows of my Baptism. I renounce Satan and resolve to follow Jesus Christ even more closely than before.

Mary, I give you my heart. Please set it on fire with love for Jesus. Make it always attentive to His burning thirst for love and for souls. Keep my heart in your most pure Heart that I may love Jesus and the members of His Body with your own perfect love.

Mary, I entrust myself totally to you: my body and soul, my goods, both interior and exterior, and even the value of all my good actions. Please make of me, of all that I am and have, whatever most pleases you. Let me be a fit instrument in your immaculate and merciful hands for bringing the greatest possible glory to God. If I fall, please lead me back to Jesus. Wash me in the blood and water that flow from His pierced side, and help me never to lose my trust in this fountain of love and mercy.

With you, O Immaculate Mother — you who always do the will of God — I unite myself to the perfect consecration of Jesus as He offers himself in the Spirit to the Father for the life of the world. Amen.

Tomorrow, you'll consecrate yourself (or re-consecrate yourself) totally to Jesus through Mary. And that's great! To do this, though, you'll need a prayer of consecration. Whether you use the one I just presented, one from the saints, or one of your own making, I encourage you to meditate on its meaning today. Such meditation on the prayer of consecration is a perfect preparation for Consecration Day.

Today is December 7 here in NZ. Tomorrow morning I will drive over to 6.30 mass in Hamilton (because I can't go to mass in our beautiful new church just across the road from my house due to the shortage of priests) and renew my consecration to The Immaculate Heart of Mary. I wonder what the world will be like this time next year. I suspect it will be a very different place. But we know that the mercy and love of Jesus and Mary will be as constant and strong as ever. I hope we never forget that despite how we feel. I hope we are given the grace to keep our eyes fixed on their their Hearts, that we remain in their Hearts and they remain in ours. God bless my fellow pilgrims here in this Consecration to Jesus through Mary.

Today is December 7 here in NZ. Tomorrow morning I will drive over to 6.30 mass in Hamilton (because I can't go to mass in our beautiful new church just across the road from my house due to the shortage of priests) and renew my consecration to The Immaculate Heart of Mary. I wonder what the world will be like this time next year. I suspect it will be a very different place. But we know that the mercy and love of Jesus and Mary will be as constant and strong as ever. I hope we never forget that despite how we feel. I hope we are given the grace to keep our eyes fixed on their their Hearts, that we remain in their Hearts and they remain in ours. God bless my fellow pilgrims here in this Consecration to Jesus through Mary.

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That is beautiful Joe! I always wonder if there will be another forum consecration because you never know when these events will kick to high gear and we lose the internet. our eyes will be fixed on our Lord and Mary at that time for sure!

Time is short. Consecrate yourself to Mary & convert. You will never regret it.

At long last! Note: If at all possible try to go to confession at least within the octave of your consecration (8 days before or after).The Day of Consecration

"At the end of the three weeks", says St. Louis De Montfort, "they shall go to confession and to Communion, with the intention of giving themselves to Jesus Christ in the quality of slaves of love, by the hands of Mary. After Communion, which they should try to make according to the method given further on [See TD # 266], they should recite the formula of their consecration, which they will also find further on. They ought to write it, or have it written, unless they have a printed copy of it; and they should sign it the same day they have made it. it would be well also that on that day they should pay some tribute to Jesus Christ and our Blessed Lady, either as a penance for their past unfaithfulness to the vows of their Baptism or as a testimony of their dependence on the dominion of Jesus and Mary. This tribute ought to be according to the devotion and ability of everyone, such as a fast, a mortification2 an alms or a candle. if they had but a pin to give in homage, yet gave it with good heart, it would be enough for Jesus, who looks only at one's good will. Once a year at least, on the same day, they should renew the same consecration, observing the same practices during the three weeks. They might also once a month, or even once a day, renew all they have done, in these few words: 'I AM ALL THINE AND ALL I HAVE BELONGS TO THEE, O MY SWEET JESUS THROUGH MARY, THY HOLY MOTHER."

Consecration to Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Wisdom, through the Blessed Virgin Mary

O Eternal and incarnate Wisdom! 0 sweetest and most adorable Jesus! True God and true man, only Son of the Eternal Father, and of Mary, always virgin! I adore Thee profoundly in the bosom and splendors of Thy Father during eternity; and I adore Thee also in the virginal bosom of Mary, Thy most worthy Mother, in the time of Thine incarnation.

I give Thee thanks for that Thou hast annihilated Thyself, taking the form of a slave in order to rescue me from the cruel slavery of the devil. I praise and glorify Thee for that Thou hast been pleased to submit Thyself to Mary, Thy holy Mother, in all things, in order to make me Thy faithful slave through her. But, alas! Ungrateful and faithless as I have been, I have not kept the promises which I made so solemnly to Thee in my Baptism; I have not fulfilled my obligations; I do not deserve to be called Thy child, nor yet Thy slave; and as there is nothing in me which does not merit Thine anger and Thy repulse, I dare not come by myself before Thy most holy and august Majesty. It is on this account that I have recourse to the intercession of Thy most holy Mother, whom Thou hast given me for a mediatrix with Thee. It is through her that I hope to obtain of Thee contrition, the pardon of my sins, and the acquisition and preservation of wisdom.

Hail, then, 0 immaculate Mary, living tabernacle of the Divinity, where the Eternal Wisdom willed to be hidden and to be adored by angels and by men! Hail, 0 Queen of Heaven and earth, to whose empire everything is subject which is under God. Hail, 0 sure refuge of sinners, whose mercy fails no one. Hear the desires which I have of the Divine Wisdom; and for that end receive the vows and offerings which in my lowliness I present to thee.

I; (Name), a faithless sinner, renew and ratify today in thy hands the vows of my Baptism; I renounce forever Satan, his pomps and works; and I give myself entirely to Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Wisdom, to carry my cross after Him all the days of my life, and to be more faithful to Him than I have ever been before. In the presence of all the heavenly court I choose thee this day for my Mother and Mistress. I deliver and consecrate to thee, as thy slave, my body and soul, my goods, both interior and exterior, and even the value of all my good actions, past, present and future; leaving to thee the entire and full right of disposing of me, and all that belongs to me, without exception, according to thy good pleasure, for the greater glory of God in time and in eternity.

Receive, 0 benignant Virgin, this little offering of my slavery, in honor of, and in union with, that subjection which the Eternal Wisdom deigned to have to thy maternity; in homage to the power which both of you have over this poor sinner, and in thanksgiving for the privileges with which the Holy Trinity has favored thee. I declare that I wish henceforth, as thy true slave, to seek thy honor and to obey thee in all things.

O admirable Mother, present me to thy dear Son as His eternal slave, so that as He has redeemed me by thee, by thee He may receive me! 0 Mother of mercy, grant me the grace to obtain the true Wisdom of God; and for that end receive me among those whom thou lovest and teachest, whom thou leadest, nourishest and protectest as thy children and thy slaves.

0 faithful Virgin, make me in all things so perfect a disciple, imitator and slave of the Incarnate Wisdom, Jesus Christ thy Son, that I may attain, by thine intercession and by thine example, to the fullness of His age on earth and of His glory in Heaven. Amen.

Before Consecration
Congratulations! You've made it to Consecration Day. Now get ready for a gloriously new morning in your spiritual life. Of course, you're already ready. You've been faithfully preparing for this moment for the last 33 days. So here are just three things I recommend by way of final preparation: (1) Make a good confession — but if you don't have time to do so before the consecration, then from your heart tell the Lord you're sorry for your sins, and make a resolution to go to confession as soon as you reasonably can. (2) Write out or print up the prayer of consecration, so you can sign it after you've recited it. (3) Get a miraculous medal to wear around your neck as a sign of your consecration — or at least keep one in your purse or wallet. (See explanation of the miraculous medal in Appendix Two [available in the book 33 Days to Morning Glory].) Again, these three things are recommendations. They're not essential to the consecration.

Prayer of Consecration
Okay, so you're ready to make your consecration. Now you'll need the right prayer. You can use either the one that follows, one from the saints, or one that you write yourself. Whatever prayer you use, I recommend that you recite it after attending Mass or even after receiving Holy Communion (if there's time). If you can't get to Mass, you can still make the consecration — Mass is highly recommended but not essential. With or without Mass, after you recite the consecration prayer, I suggest that you sign it, date it, and keep it in a safe place. (When I renew my consecration annually, I like to recite the prayer from the original copy and then sign and date it again.) Anyway, once again, here's the 33 Days to Morning Glory Prayer of Consecration that summarizes the main ideas of our four Marian giants:

I, ____________, a repentant sinner, renew and ratify today in your hands, O Immaculate Mother, the vows of my Baptism. I renounce Satan and resolve to follow Jesus Christ even more closely than before.

Mary, I give you my heart. Please set it on fire with love for Jesus. Make it always attentive to his burning thirst for love and for souls. Keep my heart in your most pure Heart that I may love Jesus and the members of his Body with your own perfect love.

Mary, I entrust myself totally to you: my body and soul, my goods, both interior and exterior, and even the value of all my good actions. Please make of me, of all that I am and have, whatever most pleases you. Let me be a fit instrument in your immaculate and merciful hands for bringing the greatest possible glory to God. If I fall, please lead me back to Jesus. Wash me in the blood and water that flow from his pierced side, and help me never to lose my trust in this fountain of love and mercy.

With you, O Immaculate Mother — you who always do the will of God — I unite myself to the perfect consecration of Jesus as he offers himself in the Spirit to the Father for the life of the world. Amen.

After Consecration
What comes after we make our Marian consecration? Lots of grace and a gloriously new morning! But as morning turns into day, we may begin to wonder how we should live out our consecration. Do we just make it once and then forget about it? No. The following three points will help us live it out to the full: renewal, attitude, and devotion.

RENEWAL
Saint Louis de Montfort recommends that we renew our consecration at least once a year on the same day, though he would encourage us to renew it even more frequently. Pope John Paul renewed his consecration to Mary every day. For daily renewal, we can use the same full formula that we recite on Consecration Day or we can pray a shorter version such as this one:

Mary, my Mother, I give myself totally to you as your possession and property. Please make of me, of all that I am and have, whatever most pleases you. Let me be a fit instrument in your immaculate and merciful hands for bringing the greatest possible glory to God.

Another way to renew and even deepen our Marian consecration is by making this retreat, 33 Days to Morning Glory, with a group (or groups) from your parish. The group retreat, which includes a retreat companion and accompanying DVD, is a great way to enrich our understanding of Marian consecration. The group retreat also happens to be the first stage of an evangelization and faith-formation initiative called Hearts Afire: Parish-based Programs from the Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception. To learn more about this group retreat, see the information pages at the end of this book .

ATTITUDE
How should we live out our consecration? What kind of "Marian attitude" should we have? This is difficult to explain fully, and it will vary from person to person. Even our four saints differ in the way they express it. Still, they share the essentials.

Saint Louis de Montfort says that it's not enough to give ourselves to Mary just once and then be on our way. He believes we need to enter into the spirit of consecration, which requires an interior dependence on Mary. In other words, he explains that we should do everything "with Mary, in Mary, through Mary, and for Mary"119 so as to do it all the more perfectly with Jesus, in Jesus, through Jesus, and for Jesus. De Montfort homes in especially on the "with Mary" idea and describes it using language that St. Maximilian Kolbe will later adopt:

The essential practice of this devotion is to perform all our actions with Mary. ... We must have habitual recourse to our Lady, becoming one with her and adopting her intentions ... . In other words, we must become an instrument in Mary's hands for her to act in us and do with us what she pleases, for the greater glory of her Son; and through Jesus for the greater glory of the Father. In this way, we pursue our interior life and make spiritual progress only in dependence on Mary.

While Kolbe describes his consecration to Mary in a way similar to this citation ("instrument in Mary's hands"), he believes that "no fixed formula exists" for living the consecration. He thinks that Mary herself needs to teach us what it means: "I don't know anything, either in theory and still less in practice, about how one can serve the Immaculata ... . She alone must instruct each one of us at every moment, [and] lead us ... ." To receive Mary's instructions, we need to turn to her "through humble prayer" and reflect on "the loving experience" of her intercession in our daily lives. In sum, for Kolbe, we learn the attitude of consecration by relying on Mary's powerful intercession, experiencing her tender care, speaking to her from our hearts, letting ourselves be led by her, having recourse to her in all things, and trusting her completely. Also, Kolbe would say that our consecration to Mary should give us an apostolic spirit that seeks to inspire others to make the consecration. For, as we learned earlier, Marian consecration is not just the quickest, easiest, and surest way to holiness for you and for me but for everyone, and thus, it's the most efficient way to bring the whole world to God in Christ.

For Blessed Mother Teresa, the living out of Marian consecration is essentially an attitude of the heart. More specifically, it's a living with and in Mary's Immaculate Heart. This attitude is described in detail in her "consecration covenant," which we read earlier. Moreover, the context for her entire consecration is found in a kind of compassion on Jesus who thirsts for love and for souls. So, for Mother Teresa, the attitude of living the consecration is one of allowing Mary to bring us to the Cross of Jesus, of letting her quiet us so we can hear Jesus' painful thirst, and of asking her to teach us to console Jesus with her own pure love.

{Cont}

Time is short. Consecrate yourself to Mary & convert. You will never regret it.

Pope John Paul II finds the core of how we should live out our entrustment to Mary in words from the Gospel of John, "And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home" (Jn 19:27). In other words, he understands the attitude of entrustment as bringing Mary into everything that makes up one's inner life. As the "Pope of Suffering," he also gives a "co- redemptive" emphasis to his theology of Marian entrustment. He does this when he points out that she who was most fully united to Christ in his redemptive consecration of himself on the Cross helps us to unite ourselves to this same consecration. In other words, Mary helps us to "offer up" our own crosses; she reminds us not to waste our suffering; and she gives us the courage to be "co-redeemers" with Christ (see Col 1:24) — of course, in a way that is subordinate and united to Christ. What we see in all these saints and blesseds, however they express it, is that we should draw close to Mary, lovingly depend on her, speak to her from our hearts, have confidence in her powerful intercession, and share with her our joys, sorrows, and sufferings. Having said this, being consecrated to Mary is not based on feelings or even a constant mindfulness of Mary, as beautiful as such mindfulness is. According to St. Maximilian Kolbe, the proper attitude of those who are consecrated to Mary flows not so much from reason or emotions but from the will:

t is not at all necessary that the thought of the Immaculata should occur to [one's] mind ... for the essence of our union with her does not consist in thought, memory, or sentiment, but in our will.

I continue to say: we belong to her even if we do not constantly repeat this concrete offering [of a particular action to her], because we consecrated ourselves to her once, and we have never taken back our consecration.

[E]ven when we are not thinking of it ... [Mary] directs every one of our actions, prearranges all the circumstances, repairs the damage of our falls and leads us lovingly toward heaven, and through us she is pleased to implant good ideas, sentiments, and examples everywhere in order to save souls and lead them to the good Jesus.

So, while St. Louis de Montfort says, "We must never go to our Lord except through Mary," Kolbe teaches us that this going through her does not always have to be a conscious act. He would surely say that it's a good thing to explicitly turn to Mary, but it's not necessary to do this every time we turn to Jesus. He believes that once we've consecrated ourselves to Mary and develop an habitual dependence on her, we always do go to Jesus with her, even if we're not thinking of it. It's like this: Let's say a husband loves his wife and has to leave for a business trip, far from home. While he's travelling, meeting with clients, and filling out reports, his wife is still with him, in his heart, even if he's not explicitly thinking of her. So it is with us when Mary is in our hearts.

When we're fully consecrated to Mary, when we've developed a relationship of childlike dependence on her motherly care, she's always with us whenever we pray, just as Jesus is always with us whenever we pray to the Father. This latter point is true, for example, even if we don't explicitly turn to Jesus when we say, "Our Father." Kolbe's main idea here is that the Father, the Son, and Mary, who is always united with the Holy Spirit (while remaining a creature), do not live along parallel lines. Rather, Jesus, Mary, and the Holy Spirit are always united together in one movement "upward" to the Father, and whenever we turn to one of them, we join all of them in their one upward movement. In other words, they're not in competition; they don't take away from each other. Rather, they form a unity and work as a team — though with different roles — to bring all back to the Father.

I'd like to emphasize one important point before we conclude: While it's true that the effects of Marian consecration hold even when we're not thinking about Mary, living the consecration does require some effort. After all, deep relationships require communication and work, and this definitely applies to our relationship with Mary. The "communication" part refers to developing a loving dependence on her and turning to her in prayer, which we've already learned about in this section and about which we'll learn even more in the next. The "work" part refers to avoiding sin, which breaks both Jesus' and Mary's Hearts. Let me be clear: To be fully consecrated to Mary does not mean we won't still sin. However, it does mean that we should have a sincere resolution to avoid at least all mortal sin and that we should truly strive to grow in virtue and holiness. This is such a crucial part of Marian consecration that, as you'll recall, de Montfort begins his prayer of consecration with a renewal of our baptismal promises to reject Satan (sin) and follow Jesus Christ more closely.

In conclusion, if we're fully consecrated to Mary, then she works in our lives, augments our good works, and cares for us and our loved ones even when we don't have recourse to her. Moreover, with the Holy Spirit, she leads us to Jesus regardless of whether or not we're thinking of her. Such is the power of her motherhood. Such is the power of Marian consecration! Because of the greatness of this gift, we should strive all the more to unite ourselves with Mary and aim to do everything through her, with her, and in her. At least out of gratitude, we should make it our aim to have an attitude of growing mindfulness of and dependence on her. Yet there should be more at work here than just trying to be grateful to Mary. For the more we belong to her, the more she can use us to accomplish God's most perfect will. Indeed, the more we unite ourselves to Mary the more she can bring us into the deepest possible intimacy with Jesus. This is a mystery that she herself will teach us, a lesson we'll learn more from the experience of her loving care than from studying it in books.

DEVOTION
To help us deepen our attitude of loving dependence on Mary, it's a good idea to practice Marian devotions, especially those that are most connected to Marian consecration. Preeminent among these is the Rosary.

The Rosary fosters in us the attitude that I just described in the previous section. When we pray the Rosary, our focus should be on the mysteries of the life of Jesus. Yet the "Hail Marys," which faithfully flow in the background, foster in us the habitual attitude of being with Mary even as we're going to Jesus. In other words, even if we aren't thinking of the words of each Hail Mary, the words are still there, helping us to contemplate Christ. For a full treatment of the Rosary, see Appendix Two [available in the book 33 Days to Morning Glory].

Other Marian devotions treated in Appendix Two are the scapular, miraculous medal, Chaplet of the 10 Evangelical Virtues, and the Chaplet of the Seven Sorrows. Marian devotions not treated in Appendix Two but that deserve mention and a brief description are novenas, icons, pilgrimages, feast days, confraternities, and spiritual reading.

NOVENAS. From the Latin word "novem," meaning nine, a novena is typically a nine-day period of prayer to obtain special graces or to implore particular petitions. Novenas tend to convey a sense of urgency. Prayed every day for nine days, the prayer can be as simple as a single Hail Mary or as elaborate as the Litany of Loreto. (See Appendix One for this prayer [available in the book 33 Days to Morning Glory].) Sometimes, an intention is so urgent that we don't have nine days beforehand to pray. For instance, maybe you've just been granted a job interview, but it's scheduled for this afternoon! Well, you might try Blessed Mother Teresa's "flying novena," whereby one prays nine Memorare's in a row. (For the text of the Memorare prayer, see Appendix One [available in the book 33 Days to Morning Glory].) Mother Teresa would often pray this novena whenever big problems or difficulties arose that needed an immediate dose of great grace. It's reported that she often experienced miraculous effects by praying it.

ICONS. Icons, or any tasteful images or representations of Jesus, Mary, the angels, or the saints, serve to turn our minds and hearts to God as they remind us of his presence and the loving intercession of Mary, the angels, and the saints. In 787, the Second Council of Nicea declared that holy images (including those of Mary) are to be used and venerated. When we venerate an image (be it a picture, statue, etc.), we're showing a sign of reverence toward the person whom the image represents. In our busy lives, placing pictures of Mary in our homes and even in our cars can remind us that she is always with us. We can also keep our favorite prayer cards in a pocket or purse. If you'd like to purchase a prayer card with the image from the cover of this book, please see the ad at the back [available in the book 33 Days to Morning Glory].

P ILGRIMAGES. Pilgrimages lead us from the everyday rhythm and distractions of life to a graced place of prayer and encounter with the Lord. There are many Marian shrines and pilgrimage destinations around the U.S. and the world.